In this course, Śaivācārya Sthaneshwar Timalsina offers lectures on two foundational texts of southern and northern Śaivism: the Śivajñānabodha and the Śiva Sūtras, respectively.


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Śūnyata (शून्यत, “void”).— If you can concentrate on your body as void (śūnyata) or space and transcend all thoughts, even for a moment, your mind will be liberated and will take on the form of that void. It is important to note that you do not have to concentrate for hours and hours in order to experience this state. Even if you focus the mind for just a moment, it is enough to give you the experience of a heightened state of awareness.

( Vijñānabhairava verse 46)

“Regarding your question concerning the spirit souls falling into Maya’s influence, it is not that those who have developed a passive relationship with Krishna are more likely to fall into nescient activities. . . the soul may fall down from any position or any relationship by misusing his independence.”

Srila Prabhupada

The world considers You inauspicious, O Destroyer of Lust who plays in the smashan smeared with the ash from funeral pyres, wearing a necklace of human skulls, with ghouls for comrades. But for those who remember You with devotion, O Bestower of Boons, You are supremely auspicious. (Shiva Mahimna Stotra, 24)

Disciple : How can we possibly wipe out the past record when we do not know nor have the means of knowing what it is?

Jagadguru: Except to a very few highly advanced souls, the past certainly remains unknown. But even our ignorance of it is very often an advantage to us. For, if we happen to know all the limitless varieties of results which we have accumulated by our actions in this life and the countless lives that have preceded it, we will be simply staggered at the magnitude and number of such results and give up in despair any attempt to overcome or mitigate them. Even in this life, forgetfulness is a boon which the merciful God has been pleased to bestow on us, so that we may not be buried at any moment with a recollection of all that has transpired in the past. Similarly, the divine spark in us is ever bright with hope and makes it possible for us to confidently exercise our freewill. It is not for us to belittle the significance of these two boons-forgetfulness of the past and hope for the future.

- Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha Swamigal, 35th Sringeri Shankaracharya

Eu ficarei doente, envelhecerei, morrerei, serei separado daqueles que amo, das minhas relações e assim por diante. Desta forma, o efeito totalmente amadurecido das minhas ações chegará a mim e a mais ninguém, e, portanto, não estou além da dependência do que fiz nas vidas anteriores.

Pensar assim repetidamente é o antídoto para coisas como a arrogância. Faça todos os esforços para não se tornar arrogante meditando neste antídoto.

Kangyur Rinpoche

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If you define reincarnation as the transmigration of a soul into a new body after the old body dies, then no, the Buddha did not teach a doctrine of reincarnation. For one thing, he taught there was no soul to transmigrate.

However, there is a Buddhist doctrine of rebirth. According to this doctrine, it is the energy or conditioning created by one life that is reborn into another, not a soul. "The person who dies here and is reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another," Theravada scholar Walpola Rahula wrote.

https://www.learnreligions.com/common-misunderstandings-of-buddhism-449743

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar."

Karma Chagme

The root of the path to enlightenment is correctly following the virtuous friend, by looking at the guru as a buddha, having no mistakes, only qualities. Looking at [the guru’s actions as] a buddha’s actions, and fulfilling the wishes and following the advice on the basis of seeing the guru as a buddha, having faith and believing the guru is a buddha. There are two things, not only having the mind in faith but also in action, these are two ways to correctly follow the virtuous friend.

Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche

In the view of your own mind—that which is totally hallucinated, opposite to reality—your own mistakes appeared in the guru’s actions. All this definitely shows is that your heart is totally rotten. Recognizing them as your own mistakes, abandon them as poison.

Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, 5th Dalai Lama

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The practice of the Mahāyāna precepts is a wonderful opportunity to accumulate merit on the Holy Day of Miracles (Chotrul Duchen). Geshe la will transmit the practice, which involves keeping precepts of pure conduct and fasting after the noontime meal for a period of 24 hours.

He will also grant the oral transmission of the Prayer of Rebirth in Sukhavati by Lama Tsongkhapa, a beautiful practice to accumulate causes to be reborn in the Pure Land of Amitabha, and a powerful pray to recite for those who are passing away.

The transmission of the prayer at this hour is for the benefit of students in the European timezone. Geshe la encourages those who are in other time zones to take the precepts using the recording from Lama Zopa Rinpoche if they have not received the transmission. The transmission of the Sukhavati Prayer will be given again in the evening for North American students unable to attend the morning session.

Now a note on emptiness or shunyata. It is very easy to equate emptiness with Dharma, but this is only partially correct. Dharma that is one with the true self is non-dual with emptiness, however emptiness is the final transmutation, not the gold, just as the ether in alchemy.

In the Lotus Sutra the Buddha describes the manner of teaching:

"If a person expounds this sutra,
he should enter the thus come one’s room,
put on the thus come one’s robe,
sit in the thus come one’s seat,
confront the assembly without fear
and broadly expound it for them, making distinctions.
Great pity and compassion are the room,
gentleness and patience are the robe,
the emptiness of all phenomena is the seat,
and from that position he should expound the Law for them."

This passage, again, describes the manifestation of the Buddha nature in reality: he reaches out to us with his compassion, as we approach we are treated with patient understanding despite our attachments, but the Buddha dwells on the seat of emptiness. Emptiness is his vehicle, his chariot, that which conveys the divine to all phenomena. It is his body. It is a sphere, a plane, the field of Dharma and it is none of these. By understanding emptiness we come to know the Dharma but Dharma is not emptiness, it is eternity, happiness, true self, and purity. It is our true selves.

I too believe that the Tantras of Tibet are the best means for the modern Bodhisattva, but it is my hope that the attainments of the wider Mahayana may benefit these new Dharma warriors in understanding their path.

I believe that the angry young men of the right taking up Buddhism is the most exciting thing to happen in the Buddhist context, at least, since the seventies. By all means, kick the "peace and love" crowd up the backside! Let's make Buddhism great again.